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Journal of Tropical Pediatrics 1999 45(5):307-310; doi:10.1093/tropej/45.5.307
© 1999 by Oxford University Press
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Brief report. Haematological abnormalities in children with tuberculosis

G Wessels, HS Schaaf, N Beyers, RP Gie, E Nel and PR Donald

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Tygerberg Hospital and the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

Over a 16 month period 307 children with suspected tuberculosis (TB) and an available full blood count (FBC) seen at Tygerberg Hospital in South Africa were evaluated and categorized as confirmed (A), probable (B), and no TB according to WHO criteria. There was no difference in the mean age of the 168 group A (33.6 months), 83 group B (34.4 months), and the 56 group C (31.6 months children. A lower mean haemoglobin (Hb 10.2 vs. 19.8 g/dl) was the only significantly different haematological parameter in children with TB compared with the comparison group (Group C). There were no differences in median total white cell count, neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, platelets, or the proportion of children in each group with anaemia, microcytosis, neutrophilia, neutropenia, lymphocytosis, lymphopenia, monocytosis, thrombocytosis or thromobocytopenia. The most common haematological abnormalities in children with TB were the presence of anaemia, neutrophilia, and monocytosis but these changes were found with equal frequency in control patients. Although haematological abnormalities are fairly common in children with TB, in a developing country these abnormalities also occur frequently in children with other non-tuberculosis respiratory infections. An FBC has no diagnostic predictive value when investigating a child for TB.


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